


what’s a whumpee gotta do to get some sleep around here?

by escapismandsharpobjects



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Exhaustion, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Whumptober 2020, this is kinda pre romance idk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:28:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27170425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/escapismandsharpobjects/pseuds/escapismandsharpobjects
Summary: whumptober day 23 - prompt: exhaustion. kyle's overworked and burnt out, but he's on a walk with alex anyway.
Relationships: Alex Manes & Kyle Valenti
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	what’s a whumpee gotta do to get some sleep around here?

**Author's Note:**

> hey!! i have no idea when this is set but it doesn't matter. this is also not super whumpy (hence the lack of the whump tag) but i just feel like it's kinda hard to do like Serious Whump with exhaustion. idk tho. maybe this is good maybe it is bad. either way i hope you like it lol.

Kyle doesn’t think he’s ever been this tired in his life. He’s worked late almost every day for two weeks, when he’s not working he’s inevitably working on some kind of alien thing, and in what little free time he has, he can’t ever manage to truly fall asleep, due to a terrible combination of stress and fear that he thinks is seriously going to kill him one of these days.

He’s using some of his scant, precious free time today to hang out with Alex. They’re on relatively good terms right now, which he’s deeply grateful for, and they’re taking a walk, which he’s substantially less grateful for. 

He can barely keep his eyes open enough to not trip over his own feet, and every step he takes feels like he’s slogging through deep mud. He’s several feet behind Alex, and really trying not to be, but his body refuses to cooperate with his mind’s insistence that it move faster. 

Eventually, Alex stops in the middle of the trail, turning to look at Kyle as he slowly approaches, crossing his arms. “What’s up with you?” he asks.

Kyle stops where he is and shrugs, feeling way too exhausted to speak. Alex shakes his head and asks if he’s feeling okay. 

Kyle shrugs again, not willing to say yes or no. His vision blurs a little, and he wavers on his feet before managing to balance himself. 

And suddenly, Alex isn’t in front of him but next to him, an arm wrapped around his shoulders, taking on some of his weight. Kyle blinks at him, slightly confused.  _ When had Alex moved? _ he wonders. 

Alex leads him, very slowly, to a smooth, flat rock at the edge of the trail. Kyle looks at it as though it’s the most comfortable bed in the world, and sinks down onto it with a heavy sigh. Alex sits next to him, and for a second he’s quiet.

“You’re clearly not okay,” Alex says, finally. “And we both know it, so just tell me what’s wrong.”

Kyle yawns and leans his head on Alex’s shoulder without thinking about it. “‘M tired,” he says, the first words he’s said all day. He feels his eyes drift closed, but snaps them open instinctively before he can fall asleep, his head still resting on Alex’s shoulder. 

Alex makes a soft sympathetic noise. “Why’d you come out here with me, then?” he asks, and he sounds so genuinely  _ concerned  _ that it makes Kyle want to cry (or maybe that’s just the exhaustion).

“I wanna...be friends,” he says, quietly. “‘M always tired anyway,” he adds, after a beat. 

Alex bumps his shoulder. “I think I might want to be friends too,” he says. “But more importantly - what do you mean, ‘always tired?’ How long have you been feeling like this?”

Kyle gives him yet another shrug. “Few weeks.” Alex’s shoulder is the nicest pillow he’s ever had, he decides, sinking down onto the other man more heavily.

“Hey,” Alex says, and Kyle snaps his head back up, thinking he must have done something wrong, though in this state he has no hope of figuring out what.

Alex, evidently sensing Kyle’s mild distress, puts a hand on his back and says, “I didn’t mean to startle you or anything. But you can’t fall asleep out here. We have to get back to the car.”

_ Oh. _ Kyle had completely forgotten that they had been in the middle of a walk. “Yeah,” he agrees, and tries to push himself up off the rock.

Which is a task far easier said than done. His arms aren’t strong enough at the moment to lift him up, and his legs shake too much to push him up on their own. He half-collapses, and then Alex’s hand is in front of him, and he’s pulled to his feet.

They stand still for a minute or two, Kyle leaning into Alex, as the former waits for the black spots in his vision to clear and for his head to stop swimming. Eventually, he pulls back slightly, and they begin their trek back to the car.

“We’re almost there,” Alex says, after about fifteen minutes of torturous walking have passed. Kyle thinks he could collapse in relief, were it not for the fact that he knows he wouldn’t stand back up. 

Five minutes and two instances of tripping over his own feet later, Kyle is in the passenger seat of Alex’s car, and it is here that he notices he’s crying, and, from the dampness he can now feel on his cheeks, seems to have been crying for a while. He’d been too out of it to notice, and then too preoccupied with trying not to fall on the walk back to the car. He sniffs out of instinct, and Alex looks at him as he starts the car. 

He reaches out a hand like he’s going to touch Kyle’s face, brush the tears away, but aborts the gesture halfway through and instead just says, “it’s gonna be fine, we’ll be back at your place soon and you can sleep for as long as you need.”

Kyle slowly shakes his head, fighting off a yawn. “Work tomorrow,: he mumbles.

“You are absolutely  _ not  _ going to work tomorrow,” Alex says, hitting the brakes a little harder than Kyle thinks is necessary as they come to a red light. 

“But-” Kyle protests, and Alex cuts him off with a sharp  _ look. _ “Fine,” he relents, staring out the window as they start to move again.

They finally arrive back at Kyle’s place. The walk inside is the worst one yet, though it’s far shorter than the walk back to the car had been. Kyle had been comfortable in the car, on the edge of a sleep that he’d fought off because he knew this was coming: the dreaded transition from sitting to walking. 

He makes it inside, though, leaning on Alex as lightly as he possibly can while still remaining upright. The second he’s through the door, he makes a very slow beeline for the couch, immediately flopping down without so much as taking off his shoes. 

Which is fine, because Alex does it for him - Kyle feels his shoes come off his feet, feels his jacket be pulled gently off of his body, feels a soft blanket drape over him.

“Sleep well,” Alex whispers, and Kyle finally falls asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!!! ugh i feel like kyle rn i am so so tired it's been a Week and the first round of college apps are coming due and i had to stay at work late tonight and my weekend is gonna be Super Busy and ughhh...life. but that is enough of my complaining, i hope you liked this story, please tell me if you did!!


End file.
